The parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) elected on Thursday six new members to its executive body. Among these six are Ahmed Qorei, the former Palestinian PM who recently lost his position in the leadership of the Fatah movement, along with top negotiator Saeb Erakat, and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO spokesman said.

The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the organisation's parliament, last held a plenary meeting in 1996.

Among Executive Committee members who died in recent years was Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Executive Committee is headed by Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.

In his speech to the PNC on Wednesday, Abbas said he will call for a parliamentary election in January should reconciliation efforts with Hamas fail. "We are still offering the same proposal, but if it's refused, then the sole alternative is to go to presidential and parliamentary elections," Abbas said, according to Reuters.